Trick or treat? Stay so cyber‑safe it’s scary – not just on Halloween

Trick or treat, it is Halloween! The day has come when children knock on your door dressed in scary costumes and ask for a treat. Be ready…or a spooky spell will be cast upon you!

The real danger, however, doesn’t knock on the door. Hackers, imposters and scammers of all ilk are looking for you in all corners of the internet, and all they want is to trick you into giving away your personal data or money.

With Cybersecurity Awareness Month ending on the last day of October, it’s a good time to look at some common ways your personal information could be at risk (not just this Hallow’s eve!) and offer up some sweet treats to help you and your family avoid falling for hackers’ tricks.

Self-defense against scammers’ tricks

Trick #1: Fake websites

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Treat #1: Recognizing phishing attacks

So someone messaged you on Instagram about an amazing Bitcoin deal. Awesome! And is it just as simple as clicking a link? Even better. Or not? Let me guess, it will take you to a site that looks super professional and convincing and there’s a place to enter your credit card details to get started? Yes? Then that’s most certainly a scam. And it becomes even harder to tell right away if a website is real or when it’s a fraudulent version of well-known crypto exchanges.

In order to avoid falling for scams involving fake websites, especially those that request your personal information or banking details, make sure to:

• Avoid clicking on links in unsolicited messages, doubly if the message came out of the blue and uses a generic salutation.
• Don’t ever feel rushed into taking an action.
• Watch out for misspelled domains and once on a website, use common sense to look out for other red flags, such as suspicious grammar mistakes or low-resolution images.
• Consider manually typing out the website’s address into the browser bar and/or try Google’s  Safe Browsing site status tool or VirusTotal’s URL checker to…